Suzanne Felber: Why I Joined Dallas’ Housing Task Force and Will Fight for South Edgefield

Editor’s Note: The Clarendon/Edgefield zoning change referenced below is a “downzone” that affects seven commercial properties. Under the current zoning, apartments can be built up to four stories. The height would be limited by the overlay, which follows the unanimously approved West Oak Cliff Area Plan.

By Suzanne Felber
CandysDirt.com Contributor

When I moved back to Dallas 22 years ago, I wanted something different than what I had in Dallas before. I was moving back from Tucson and wanted a quirky place in a diverse neighborhood this time. I looked for what seemed like forever, and when I finally drove past an unusual building on Clarendon Drive in Oak Cliff, it was love at first sight. 

Being on the board of Shared Housing made me aware of Dallas’s housing shortages, even back then. And no one except for me thought it was a good idea to move to this part of Oak Cliff. I wanted neighbors who knew each other by name and helped each other. When a tree blew down, Greg of JD’s Tree Trimming Service came and cut it down without me even asking, and that is how our 20-plus-year friendship started. He had lived in the neighborhood forever and was kind enough to introduce me to many interesting people.

Woody, a disabled neighbor, would come and mow my yard and fix my riding lawnmower, which was constantly breaking down. And the “Can Man,” who was up every morning picking up trash and cans in the neighborhood, and I got pretty good at our “Spanglish” — he still doesn’t know English. My Spanish is embarrassing, but it is our private joke. He always waves and asks if I know Spanish; I say, “Yo no hablo mucho españo.” We laugh and go our separate ways. Word spread that I knew about real estate in the neighborhood. My parents were Realtors, and I had my license with Marilyn Hoffman for 10 years.

Disabled South Edgefield Resident’s Plight Shows How Shady Investors Are Harassing Homeowners

Neighbors started asking for my help when they were threatened by shady developers who said that code would take their house if they didn’t sell it for pennies on the dollar. When my disabled neighbor Woody and his mother were living in a home where you could see daylight through the ceiling, I got them the right program that the City of Dallas was offering and got a brand new home built for them on their lot.

When I bought my home, I thought that never in my lifetime would I have to worry about developers wanting what I had or getting 20 to 30 calls a day from investors wanting to buy my lot for $15,000. That day has arrived for me and most of my neighbors. Like them, many who are Hispanic and speak minimal English have lived in their homes and paid taxes for generations. They are being pursued by investors hoping to take advantage of people who have no idea what their homes and land are worth or if the threats that are being made are genuine. My neighbor Woody is one of those people being forced out.

My neighborhood has become a hotbed of investor interest because of the West Oak Cliff Area Plan and ForwardDallas. I am not going to say “developer interest” because many great developers are trying to do the right thing, and this envelops more groups than that. Some of these investors are calling code enforcement about homes that may not be perfect, but the owners are doing their best to keep them up. Code enforcement does a “cleanup,” charging the homeowner for more than they can afford. The next thing you know, the house has a new owner and is being flipped. Many of these never get permits for the work being done. With all of this going on around me, I felt like I needed to do something more to help my neighbors.

About a year ago, someone suggested that I put in an application to be on the Inclusive Housing Task Force that the city was planning on restructuring. I did, and surprisingly, after a year, I got a notice that I was accepted.

Our first meeting was on July 29, and I left feeling more optimistic than I had in years about the approach the City of Dallas plans to provide more affordable housing.

I think 20 of us are on the task force, and after hearing the bios and beliefs of the other task force members, I am honored to have been chosen to be a part of this. The staff listened, the meeting was extremely well run, and I felt the staff valued our time. I would have been happy to spend days discussing what we covered in hours. That is all that I ask. 

City Hall Roundup: Dallas is Accepting Applications For Housing Task Force 

Have you heard about the Edgefield/Clarendon Trolley Stop? Neither had I. So when my South Edgefield Neighborhood Association told me there would be a city-led meeting about it, I canceled my business trip and showed up to learn more. Since this was happening in front of my home, I wanted to learn more. It turns out that the city wasn’t building a “trolley,” but it said a trolley line went through this area, and there was a trolley stop at the intersection a long time ago.

My new favorite historian, Michael Amonett, did some research and found that there never was a trolley stop here; the stop and the streetcar, not the trolley, were blocks away. Like many others, we were confused by the name used for this meeting but discovered that it was about a zoning change that the city wanted to do for seven commercial buildings tied into WOCAP and ForwardDallas.

Michael Amonett: North Oak Cliff Residents Don’t Want Rezoning at Clarendon and Edgefield

There is only one problem — none of the homeowners and residents want it, including myself. It will allow historically significant buildings to have their zoning changed so that up to three-story apartments, townhomes, and multi-family can be built on these properties instead. I will let smarter people than me talk about how many things are wrong with this, but I can speak in the first person about my concerns.

My home, like many of my neighbors, is the most significant investment that I have. It’s my retirement; it is what I have worked for my entire life. Like many neighbors, I didn’t move there because I wanted to make a huge profit. I have been told that investors are now salivating over it with these zoning changes. Still, I bought it because I enjoy the quality of life there. I won’t and would not trade my neighbors for anything. Everyone has the right to sell their property at a fair value. Still, I dig my heels in when my neighbors are forced out of something affordable to them and into the unknown. They may not be six-inch stilettos, but they are still heels.

So even though I wasn’t heard, or my opinion appreciated at the “Edgefield/Clarendon Trolley Stop” meeting, I won’t stop fighting for my neighbors who bring me home-baked bread, the best paletas in town, Spanglish in the morning with huge smiles, and Alebrijes Cafe that is also affected by this. They have some of the best food in the city, and they always sneak homemade pineapple empanadas into my bag when I visit because they know those are my favorites.

Let’s keep the diversity that makes Oak Cliff so unique and the people who make it such an exciting place to live, in Oak Cliff.

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Suzanne Felber is a North Oak Cliff resident and member of the South Edgefield Neighborhood Association. She is a designer and writer at lifestylist.com and her work has appeared in Architectural Digest, among numerous other publications.